Twitter is having a tough year and things just went from bad to worse. The company may soon have to boycott ads as they were played alongside content that promoted child abuse and other explicit material.
A new report by Reuters is shedding light on how various brands like Coca-Cola and Walt Disney were among the brands that appeared across such profile pages of various accounts on the app known for promoting exploitative material.
Thanks to a cybersecurity group called Ghost Data, which worked by the side of Reuters to uncover the mystery and various ad placement issues, this is definitely going to be a huge blow to the company’s business model. And in case you didn’t know, they haven’t been getting too much positive publicity recently.
There’s been chaos in all directions thanks to the Elon Musk drama taking center stage. There have also been so many revelations in regard to the lax of various data and privacy practices. And now, the app is facing plenty of issues as plans to boycott advertisers are on the cards, not by choice but by force. So many leading brands like Ecolab and Dyson have suspended their campaigns in this regard.
This is truly the least concerning matter as the report by Ghost Data really sheds more light on outlining nearly 500 different accounts which requested the sharing of child abuse material through the app. And Twitter is guilty because it failed to act at the right time and get rid of such content, as per the study’s findings. We’re talking about a good 70% of the content still being seen on the app.
These findings are going to raise so many more questions regarding the app’s inability to address matters related to harmful material. Twitter says it can’t detect any form of exploitative content at this scale.
This finding stems from a recent investigation that took place last month about Twitter’s intentions to give creators of Adult content a chance to start selling OnlyFans type of paid subscriptions.
Instead of working to address the matter in abundance, Twitter has instead opted to lean its way into it and that would raise plenty of eyebrows for advertisers that aren’t willing to risk business. After all, who wants ads to be promoted alongside disturbing content and offensive tweets?
This is all happening right now and as the new report sheds more light on the matter, the app’s internal investigation found that the app couldn’t allow adult creators to sell out subscriptions as the firm wasn’t and isn’t putting a strict check on explicit content.
This clearly means Twitter is willing to risk its business and profits as it lacks the means to track such content in the first place. But some claim the findings aren’t a major surprise to them. But as you can imagine, the backlash being brought on by advertisers is certainly huge and might force the platform to crack down on such behavior soon.
For now, Twitter mentioned how it's trying to invest in better resources to tackle the matter which entails acquiring new positions and implementing new strategies.
So yes, we should be happy that the company is finally taking action. But knowing that the issue was there from the start and not doing anything about is definitely concerning.
We know that Twitter publicly promotes adult content, even if it's done inadvertently. And if they can’t police the issue, that’s really shady behavior.
Hence, the app is being forced to make some major amendments if they want to avoid such boycotts in the future because ads generate revenue, and losing out can be really bad for the platform.
Read next: Twitter Is Adding A New Communities Section For Users To Embellish Upon In Their Professional Profiles
A new report by Reuters is shedding light on how various brands like Coca-Cola and Walt Disney were among the brands that appeared across such profile pages of various accounts on the app known for promoting exploitative material.
Thanks to a cybersecurity group called Ghost Data, which worked by the side of Reuters to uncover the mystery and various ad placement issues, this is definitely going to be a huge blow to the company’s business model. And in case you didn’t know, they haven’t been getting too much positive publicity recently.
There’s been chaos in all directions thanks to the Elon Musk drama taking center stage. There have also been so many revelations in regard to the lax of various data and privacy practices. And now, the app is facing plenty of issues as plans to boycott advertisers are on the cards, not by choice but by force. So many leading brands like Ecolab and Dyson have suspended their campaigns in this regard.
This is truly the least concerning matter as the report by Ghost Data really sheds more light on outlining nearly 500 different accounts which requested the sharing of child abuse material through the app. And Twitter is guilty because it failed to act at the right time and get rid of such content, as per the study’s findings. We’re talking about a good 70% of the content still being seen on the app.
These findings are going to raise so many more questions regarding the app’s inability to address matters related to harmful material. Twitter says it can’t detect any form of exploitative content at this scale.
This finding stems from a recent investigation that took place last month about Twitter’s intentions to give creators of Adult content a chance to start selling OnlyFans type of paid subscriptions.
Instead of working to address the matter in abundance, Twitter has instead opted to lean its way into it and that would raise plenty of eyebrows for advertisers that aren’t willing to risk business. After all, who wants ads to be promoted alongside disturbing content and offensive tweets?
This is all happening right now and as the new report sheds more light on the matter, the app’s internal investigation found that the app couldn’t allow adult creators to sell out subscriptions as the firm wasn’t and isn’t putting a strict check on explicit content.
This clearly means Twitter is willing to risk its business and profits as it lacks the means to track such content in the first place. But some claim the findings aren’t a major surprise to them. But as you can imagine, the backlash being brought on by advertisers is certainly huge and might force the platform to crack down on such behavior soon.
For now, Twitter mentioned how it's trying to invest in better resources to tackle the matter which entails acquiring new positions and implementing new strategies.
So yes, we should be happy that the company is finally taking action. But knowing that the issue was there from the start and not doing anything about is definitely concerning.
We know that Twitter publicly promotes adult content, even if it's done inadvertently. And if they can’t police the issue, that’s really shady behavior.
Hence, the app is being forced to make some major amendments if they want to avoid such boycotts in the future because ads generate revenue, and losing out can be really bad for the platform.
Read next: Twitter Is Adding A New Communities Section For Users To Embellish Upon In Their Professional Profiles
